Jesus is not just written about in the Bible. Early secular writings provide various perspectives on Christ and Christianity: ## 1. Thallus: (52 A.D.) > [!quote] [[Schaff2017-cc|Julius Africanus]] > “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.”<p style='text-align: right;'>--- </p> ### 2. Tacitus: (55-117 A.D.) > [!quote] [[Mellor2010-ja|Tacitus Annals]] > “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of on of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the word find their center and become popular.” ### 3. Suetonius : (69-140 A.D.) > [!quote] [[Suetonius2014-zo|Suetonius: Life of Augustus]] > “Because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christ], he [Claudius] expelled them from the city [Rome].” In another work Suetonius wrote this. > [!quote] [[Graves2007-sk|The Twelve Caesars]] > “Nero inflicted punishment on the Christians, a sect given to a new and mischievous religious belief.” ### 4. The Letter of Mara Bar Serapion: (73 A.D.) > [!quote] Mara Bar Serapion > “What benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as judgment for their crime. Or, the people of Samos for burning Pythagoras? In one moment their country was covered with sand. Or the Jews by murdering their wise king?…After that their kingdom was abolished. God rightly avenged these men…The wise king…Lived on in the teachings he enacted.” ### 5. Phlegon Of Tralles: (1st Century) > [!quote] [[Schaff2017-cc|Julius Africanus]] > “During the time of Tiberius Caesar an eclipse of the sun occurred during the full moon.” ### 6. Celsus: (2nd Century) > [!quote] [[Schaff2017-mm|Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume IV.]] > “born in a certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country, who gained her subsistence by spinning, and who was turned out of doors by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because she was convicted of adultery; that after being driven away by her husband, and wandering about for a time, she disgracefully gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child, who having hired himself out as a servant in Egypt on account of his poverty, and having there acquired some miraculous powers, on which the Egyptians greatly pride themselves, returned to his own country, highly elated on account of them, and by means of these proclaimed himself a God.” ### 7. Pliny The Younger: (112 A.D.) > [!quote] [[The_Younger_Pliny2003-yh|The Letters of the Younger Pliny]] > “They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sand in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath not to any wicked deeds, not to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny any trust when they should be call to deliver it up, after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food "but food of an ordinary but and innocent kind.” ### 8. Lucius Annaeus Seneca: (120-180 A.D.) > [!quote] [[Stewart2019-ua|Lucian]] > "The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day "the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account….You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property." ### 9. Hierocles Philalethes: (AD 284-305) > [!quote] [[Eusebius_of_Caesarea2019-hq|Eusebius, (Against Hierocles)]] > “And this point is also worth noticing, that whereas the tales of Jesus have been vamped up by Peter and Paul and a few others of the kind,–men who were liars and devoid of education and wizards.” ### 10. Julian The Apostate: (332-363 A.D.) > [!quote] [[Schaff2007-sk|Theodoret]] > “As he bled, the dying emperor groaned, “You have conquered, O Galilean,” [Referring to Jesus Christ.] ### 11. Macrobius: (4th-5th Century) > [!quote] [[Macrobius2011-ne|Saturnalia, Volume I: Books 1-2]] > When it was heard that Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered boys in Syria under the age of two years to be put to death and that the kings son was among those killed, he said (the Emperor Augustus) remarked, "It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son" ### Babylonian Talmud: (Completed in the 6th Century A.D.) > [!quote] [[Rodkinson2018-qf|The Babylonian Talmud]] > On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, “He is going forth to be stoned because He has practiced sorcery (an admission of his miracles) and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favor let him come forward and plead on his behalf. But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the even of the Passover.” ### 13. Toldoth Yeshu: (6 Century) > [!quote] [[Deutsch2014-gc|TOLEDOTH YESHU]] > This is a derogatory version of the life of Jesus, it Mentions the empty tomb and that the Jewish leaders found it empty. That Jesus was crucified on the eve of the Passover and that He claimed to be God. That Jesus performed sorcery, he healed, and that he taught Rabbis. ### 14. Josephus: (37 – 100 AD) > [!quote] [[Josephus2018-gw|The Antiquities of the Jews]] > At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day. The early secular references to Christ and Christianity, ranging from Roman historians like Tacitus and Pliny the Younger to criticisms from figures like Celsus and Lucian of Samosata, not only corroborate certain biblical events, such as the darkness at Christ's crucifixion and the nature of early Christian worship, but also offer insight into the societal and cultural reactions to the Christian movement. While some sources express skepticism or disdain towards Christians, others unwittingly validate the historical presence and impact of Jesus.